Is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ just a myth or fact?

Jeff Jasko
Pittsburgh Standard

Is the resurrection of Jesus, the greatest feat or a
gargantuan fraud?

Did Jesus Christ
actually exist? If he did, is it reasonable to believe that he rose from the
dead? Is there any historical evidence to support such a momentous claim? Where
do we start when searching for evidence?

Considering that
the New Testament (NT) is the source of many Christians’ belief in the life and
supposed resurrection of Jesus, it seems logical to start our search there.
However, an immediate question is, “Why should we believe what the NT says?” In
order to answer that, we must examine its historical reliability.

When examining the reliability of any ancient
document, an important test to consider is the bibliographic test, which
determines the quantity of manuscripts and also the time span between the
original documents and our earliest copies. The more copies, the better able we
are to work back to the original. The closer the time span between the copies
and the original, the less likely it is that serious textual error has crept
in. Although space does not permit me to include the evidences in this article,
any reputable historian would attest to the fact that the NT has stronger
bibliographic support than any classical literature – including Homer, Tacitus,
Pliny, and Aristotle according to ‘Is the New Testament Reliable?’ by
Paul Barnett (Intervarsity Press).

If in fact the NT is historically reliable, then
it logically follows that Jesus is an historical figure since it clearly speaks
of him as such. In fact, the Encyclopedia Britannica commits over 20,000 words
to Jesus, and says with respect to his historicity that it was not until the end
of the 18th century that it was disputed for the very first time - and that on
inadequate grounds.

However, even if the NT is reliable and Jesus is
historical, are these reasons to believe in his resurrection? After all, if
Jesus did not rise from the dead, then millions of people have put their faith
in him in vain. However, if Jesus in fact rose in support of his claims to
deity then he is indeed worthy of our praise. Christianity literally lives or
dies at Christ’s resurrection. The remainder of this article will be largely
adapted from the first several chapters of Resurrection, a book by Hank
Hanegraaff, the president of the Christian Research Institute. In it he uses
the acronym F-E-A-T to discuss some of the evidences supporting the historicity
of the resurrection: Fatal torment, Empty tomb, Appearances,
and Transformation.

Fatal
torment: The crucifixion of Jesus is
one of the most well established facts of ancient history. There is a virtual
consensus among liberal and conservative New Testament scholars that Christ died
on the cross, that he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Aritmathea, and that
his death drove his disciples to despair. The best medical minds of ancient and
modern times have demonstrated through scientific evidences that Jesus’ trauma
was fatal. After being arrested by the temple guard, Christ was brought before
Caiaphas the High Priest, and there he was mocked, beaten, and spat upon. The
next morning Jesus was led into the Praetorian and subjected to a Roman
flogging, during which he was struck 39 times with a whip containing razor sharp
bones and lead balls. The soldiers pressed a crown of sharp thorns into his
scalp and thrust a heavy wooden beam upon his critically wounded body. At
Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”), Jesus experienced ultimate
physical torture in the form of the cross. The Roman system of crucifixion had
been finely tuned to produce maximum pain, and the word excruciating
(literally “out of the cross”) had to be invented to fully describe it. The
Roman soldiers drove thick seven-inch iron spikes through Christ’s wrists and
feet, and Jesus began to die of asphyxiation and significant blood loss. After
his death, a Roman legionnaire thrust his spear through the fifth interspace
between the ribs, upward through the pericardium, and into Jesus’ heart.
Immediately, there rushed forth blood and water, demonstrating conclusively that
Christ had suffered fatal torment.

Empty
tomb: The late liberal scholar John
A.T. Robinson of Cambridge conceded that the burial of Jesus “is one of the
earliest and best-attested facts about Jesus.” This statement is based on
several sound arguments. First, as mentioned earlier, both liberal and
conservative NT scholars agree that Jesus’ body was buried in the private tomb
of Joseph of Arithmathea. Christian scholar William Lane Craig underscores this
fact by explaining that: (1) Joseph of Arithmathea, as a member of the Jewish
court that condemned Jesus, is unlikely to be a Christian invention; Christ’s
early disciples would not have attributed such a respectable act to a member of
this group if it was not factual; (2) no competing burial story exists; (3) the
account of Jesus’ entombment is substantiated by Mark’s gospel and is,
therefore, far too early to have been the subject of legendary corruption.
Furthermore, in first-century Jewish society, women had low social status and
their testimonies had very limited legal validity. Therefore, if the empty tomb
story were simply legendary, women would not have been featured as the initial
discoverers of this dubious event. The fact that they were, presents strong
evidence that the four gospel writers faithfully recorded what actually
happened. Finally, the earliest Jewish response to the resurrection presupposes
the empty tomb. Instead of denying that the tomb was empty, the enemies of
Christ accused his disciples of stealing the body.

Appearances:
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul exudes confidence in the
post-resurrection appearances of Christ: “For what I received I passed on to
you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures [the Old Testament], that he was raised on the third day . . . that
he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve [apostles]. After that, he
appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of who
are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles, and last of all to me also.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
According to a great majority of scholars, Paul is reiterating an early creed
that can be dated to within three to eight years of the crucifixion itself. The
historian Gary Habermas states that this creed is not only early, but it is also
free from legendary contamination, unambiguous and specific, and ultimately
rooted in eyewitness accounts. In addition, Peter, Paul, and the rest of the
apostles claimed that Christ appeared to hundreds of people who were alive and
available for cross-examination. The appearances could not have been mere
hallucinations because they were too numerous and occurred over a long period of
time to people who had no expectation of them; these conditions are the exact
opposite of those characteristic of hallucinations.

Transformation:
Only a few days after Jesus’ death, the apostles began eagerly proclaiming their
faith in him. In fact, eleven out of the twelve apostles went to their deaths
proclaiming him to be the risen Messiah. Since they were eyewitnesses and
thereby able to investigate whether or not he actually rose from the dead, they
would not have willingly gone to their deaths for the sake of a lie. Moreover,
Paul was transformed from a ceaseless persecutor of Christians to the chief
apostle to the Gentiles. Within weeks of the resurrection, entire communities
of at least ten thousand Jews were willing to give up the very sociological and
theological traditions that had given them their national identity.

In conclusion,
either the resurrection is a gargantuan fraud or the greatest feat in human
history. As the apostle Paul explains, “If Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith . . . for we testified about God that
he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead
are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised
either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still
in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-17). However, if Jesus did rise from the
dead, then his many claims about himself are verified, including: his equality
with God (Mark 14:61-64; John 8:58,17:5; Revelation 1:17); his power to raise
and judge the dead (John 5:21,25,29); his ability to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-11);
and his claim that no one comes to God the Father except through him (John
14:6). It is not enough to know the historicity of the resurrection, but it is
also necessary to understand its importance: on the cross Christ bore the sin
and suffering of all humanity and through his resurrection he triumphed over
evil (Colossians 2:14). Jesus makes it very clear
that anyone who accepts him as Lord will have eternal life (John 3:16-17).

I urge anyone who
has not yet accepted Christ as Savior and Lord to investigate the evidences
supporting Christianity. It is not a blind leap of faith but rather a faith
firmly grounded in history and science. Everyone has to make a choice; may your
search guide you to the correct one.